Baby Born Without Eyes Due to Rare Disorder

January 27th, 2010

Fox News

Brielle Garrison suffers from anophthalmia, which is a disorder that results in the absence of ocular tissue and usually develops during pregnancy.

Dr. Manny Alvarez, managing editor of health at FoxNews.com and Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Science at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, said he has delivered several babies with this ocular abnormality.

“The condition can usually be diagnosed by ultrasound – around 18 weeks,” Alvarez, who specializes in high-risk pregnancies, told FoxNews.com.” “The condition can be associated with other birth defects as well, including abnormal brain development.”

Causes of anophthalmia may include genetic mutations and abnormal chromosomes, according to the National Institutes of Health. Researchers also believe that environmental factors, such as exposure to X-rays, chemicals, drugs or viruses may increase the risk, but research is not conclusive, the NIH said on its Web site.

Lori Garrison, Brielle’s grandmother, said this has been incredibly hard on her family.

“For a baby to be born with no eyes is just so cruel, and because my daughter’s 15, it was just mind boggling that such a thing could happen,” Garrison said.

Brielle has a long road ahead of her and will have to have several surgeries so that her face does not become deformed, according to the report.

“It’s hard,” said Taylor Garrison, Brielle’s mother. “I mean, this week we have an appointment every day, and there are always appointments (and) different doctors.”

There is no treatment for severe anophthalmia, however children can be fitted for with an artificial eye for cosmetic purposes and to promote socket growth, the NIH said.

In a recent study in England, one in 10,000 newborns was found to have anopthalmia.

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U.S. Pharmaceutical Factories Dumping Huge Quantities of Drugs Into Public Sewers, Rivers and Waterways

September 24, 2009

Natural News

By David Gutierrez

In spite of claims by pharmaceutical companies that they do not discharge their products into the water supply, federal researchers have discovered that waters downstream of pharmaceutical plants are more heavily contaminated with drug residue than waters elsewhere in the country.

In one study, conducted by scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), researchers tested the water entering two water treatment plants down the sewer line of several pharmaceutical factories, as well as at other plants not receiving sewage from drug plants. Researchers discovered drugs at “much higher detection frequencies and concentrations” at the plants receiving effluent from pharmaceutical factories. Drugs detected included opiates, a barbiturate and a tranquilizer.

In a second study, researchers from the Environmental Protection Agency tested the water entering a wastewater treatment plant in the city of Kalamazoo, Mich., down the sewage line from a Pfizer drug factory. They found that the water entering the plant was exceptionally high in levels of the antibiotic lincomycin, which the factory was producing at that time.

“There’s some product going down the drain,” said Bruce Merchant, the city’s public services director.

Prior studies have shown that lincomycin can cause genetic mutations, and that it encourages the growth of cancer cells when combined with minute concentrations of a number of other drugs that are common in surface water.

The two studies are among the first to test longstanding claims by the pharmaceutical industry that factory emissions are not a significant source of drug residue in drinking water supplies.

“It’s critical that those types of assumptions are confirmed through real testing,” USGS researcher Herb Buxton said.

Research outside of the United States also suggests that pharmaceutical companies are major sources of drug pollution. In Switzerland, a test by drug company Roche found that a full 0.2 percent of active drug ingredients enter the environment during the manufacturing process. Another study found that 100 pounds of the antibiotic ciproflaxin were entering the water every day from a drug factory in India.

Click here for the full report from Natural News